The present invention relates generally to data storage systems, and in particular to techniques for controlling storage access based on a designated time.
The information technology revolution brings with it an ever increasing need for more storage capacity for business enterprises. It is expected that the average Fortune 1000 company's storage requirement will more than double in the coming years. In addition, growth has brought shortages of skilled persons in the information technology field. These challenges confront many companies facing the need to expand and improve their information technology assets. Increasingly, companies are turning to outsourcing storage management as a method of coping with the need to grow capacity in view of rapidly increasing demand. Storage Service Providers (SSPs) is one such service for providing storage infrastructure management to business enterprises. By subscribing to an SSP, companies can obtain needed storage resources by purchasing the services from the SSP. The SSP owns storage systems, which it uses to provide storage capacity for the users' host systems, as well as provide the storage management services. Users pay for the storage usage and management services based upon the terms of a service level agreement (SLA) made between the user and the SSP.
While certain advantages to present SSP technologies are perceived, opportunities for further improvement exist. For example, according to conventional SSP technology, the SSP provides storage resources for the host systems in the user's site in disk storage systems owned by the SSP at the site. However, some SSP users would like to locate their equipment remotely from the SSP site. For example, users may wish to access data held in the storage systems of the SSP via the Internet, or other network. Further, security is an important concern to both the user and the SSP. For the user, this means that valuable business information assets can be protected by restricting access to the data in storage. For the SSP, this means that data integrity is preserved for its customers, and that no user receives access that is not authorized. For example, various divisions or departments in a large company may wish to have their own storage resources, which are private and therefore cannot be accessed by members of other divisions or departments.
What is needed are improved techniques for managing access to storage resources.